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Team Ming
Team Ming was a team of roboteers that was one of the longest competing teams in Robot Wars. They competed in Series 3 with Ming, Series 4 with Ming 2, Series 5 and 6 (and the first series of Extreme) with Ming 3 and in Series 7 with Ming Dienasty, alongside a robot separate from the Ming series, Zorro. Although the team competed in five series of the UK wars, they never reached a Heat Final, and only passed the first round twice. However, Ming 3 did win the Nickelodeon Robot Wars International Tag Team Terror Tournament, alongside Rick. The Team The Team Captain was Andrew Cotterell, who was joined by his children Alexander, Oliver, and Elliot. Tim Hurdle and Fox Abrahams were also part of the team in Series 3 and Series 7 respectively. From Series 5/Extreme Series 1 onwards, Team Ming would dress themselves in outfits to match their robots; dressing like the character from Flash Gordon when competing with any of the Ming machines, and dressing like the robot's namesake when competing with Zorro. In Series 7, Ming and Zorro were placed in specific heats that ensured they would not meet until the Grand Final. It would have been impossible for the two to be in the arena at the same time, as Andrew was the team's only driver. Team Vader and Team Mouse's robots were similarly separated, however both of those teams possessed at least two drivers. Robogeddon Robogeddon Unit.jpg|The standard RCV from Robogeddon, fully built, that Zorro and Ming Dienasty were based on Raptor Interior.jpg|The insides of a Robogeddon RCV RobogeddonArena.jpg|The Arena used for Robogeddon events Robogeddon_2014.jpg|A fight between Robogeddon machines robogposter.jpg|A promotional poster for Robogeddon MingDNRobogeddon.jpg|Ming Dienasty (bottom), modified from a Robogeddon set (top), together for comparison Robogeddon2014.png|Robogeddon at a 2014 Roaming Robots event In 2002, at the end of Extreme Series 2, Andrew Cotterell, along with Ian Lewis and Simon Scott came together to form a company called Robogeddon (No relation to the Series 3 competitor). They began manufacturing robot kits or RCVs (Radio Controlled Vehicles) as they call them. When assembled, the RCV is an 80 kg box-shaped four-wheel-drive robot with a bumper all around it to absorb shocks. It also features a thin electric flipping arm. The kit as a whole is sold for £1825, but individual parts can be bought as well. In addition to selling kits, Robogeddon also offers pre-assembled RCVs that can be rented out for events and parties.BBC article on Robogeddon The RCV's can battle in fours in Robogeddon arenas, where there are "point bumpers" in each corner, one for each robot, and each robot has to score as many points as possible by hitting their opponent's bumpers whilst defending their own. Competitors can also flip over their opponents to slow them down, as they take time to self right. Promo video for Robogeddon, YouTube Displaying corporate logos is not allowed on Robot Wars, so in order to promote his products during Series 7, Andrew Cotterell used RCVs as the bases for his two new robots, Zorro and Ming Dienasty, adding on a spinning blade to Zorro and drill to Ming Dienasty respectively. Although both robots performed poorly in the main competition, they helped give Robogeddon the exposure that Cotterell was seeking. In 2014, John Findlay of Team Roaming Robots acquired the Robogeddon brand from Andrew Cotterell, and has used it at Roaming Robot events. An RCV unit is used as a a Platinum VIP feature at his events. Robots Mingthemerciless.JPG|Ming (Series 3) Ming2.jpg|Ming 2 (Series 4) Ming III.png|Ming 3 (Series 5) Ming 3.png|Ming 3 (Series 6) MIngDieNasty.JPG|Ming Dienasty (Series 7) Zorro.png|Zorro (Series 7) Wins/Losses *Wins: 6 *Losses: 8 Series Record UK Series US Series Trivia *In March 2005, Robogeddon was a featured item on Blue Peter, where presenters and guests controlled the robots to promote the Robogeddon events.Blue Peter, BBC Website (Archived) *In 2012, team captain Andrew Cotterell appeared on the BBC One trading standards show ''Watchdog. The former driver of the Ming robots had been contacted by short-term loan provider Wonga.com requesting payments on loans taken out in his name, despite the fact that he had never heard about the company prior to receiving two letters from Wonga asking for over £400. It turned out that someone else had accessed Andrew's details and this fraudulent request had passed Wonga's security checks. Luckily, when Andrew contacted Wonga about the error, they corrected the mistake. Andrew's appearance on Watchdog, BBC Website (Archived) *Having made six attempts at the UK championship (including entering two robots in Series 7), Team Ming hold the dubious record for making the most attempts at the UK championship without reaching a Heat Final. References Honours Category:Team Pages Category:Competitors in 5 Wars Category:Teams who entered the same series with more than one robot